String Quartet No. 2 (Mendelssohn)

String Quartet No. 2 (Mendelssohn)

The String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 13, was composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1827.

Movements

Like all of Mendelssohn's string quartets, this work has four movements:

# Adagio – Allegro vivace
# Adagio non lento
# Intermezzo: Allegretto con moto – Allegro di molto
# Presto – Adagio non lento

A typical performance lasts about 20 minutes.

Analysis

This quartet, written when Mendelssohn was only 18, is the young composer's tribute to Beethoven. Many features of the quartet are quotes or paraphrases of Beethoven's middle and late quartets. Mendelssohn gave the quartet a subtitle, "Ist es wahr?" (Is it true?), which recalls the title Beethoven wrote on the last movement of his Op. 135 string quartet "Muss es sein?" (Must it be?) [For a complete analysis of this quartet, see cite book| last = Griffiths| first = Paul| title = The String Quartet: a History| publisher = Thames and Hudson| year = 1985| isbn=0-500-27383-9.] The Adagio movement has a middle slow, fugal section which is modelled after the fugal middle section of the slow movement of Beethoven's Op. 95. And the final movement of Beethoven's Op. 132 quartet is a prototype for Mendelssohn's last movement: it begins with a cadenza interlude in the first violin, leading into a fast, melodic movement with a driving bass line in the cello which is a close copy of the cello part of Op. 132.

Media

References

External links

*IMSLP2|id=String Quartet No.2, Op.13 (Mendelssohn, Felix)|cname=String Quartet No. 2
* [http://www.gresham.ac.uk/event.asp?PageId=45&EventId=685 A lecture by Roger Parker on this quartet, followed by a performance of this piece]


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